YOUNG Chippenham footballer Tyrone Mings is bidding to earn the call-up that every young player dreams of, after earning the chance to trial for England’s U18 schoolboys’ side.

The 17 year-old defender, son of Chippenham Town manager Adie, is one of 200 youngsters on trial at Repton School in Derbyshire.

Mings, of Southmead, has just finished the first year of his football scholarship at Millfield School in Somerset and was put forward for the trials by his coaches.

“It’s been going well down there and I’ve made myself first-choice left-back this year,” said Mings.

“Hopefully something will come of the trial – if not, then it’ll be a good experience. If I get through this week it’ll start to feel a lot more real, because this is sort of an overview of the players and then they’ll start to cut the numbers down.”

He joined Southampton’s academy as an eight-year-old in 2001 but was released in September last year when the youth budget was axed.

He has also been looked at by Bristol Rovers’ academy and hopes the trials can help put him in the shop window.

“At the trials there’ll definitely be scouts from other teams looking for potential players when they come out of their schools and colleges, but I’ll just have to see how it goes,” he said.

He has joined in with the Bluebirds’ pre-season training but thinks he is some way off joining his dad’s side. “I don’t think I’d get in the team at the moment – it’s a big step-up, bearing in mind I haven’t played men’s football yet so I might start lower down next year,” he said.